Archives for :
April2014

Sony and Microsoft have released their March sales numbers. Sony reported that they sold their seven millionth PS4. While Microsoft has announced that they have shipped five million Xbox Ones to retailers. This is by far a cause for Sony to declare undeniable victory in the console wars of this generation, but the terms used in these sales reports are key here.

Sony reported that they SOLD their 7 millionth console. I have been in stores all throughout my region and there is never more than two or three PS4 systems in the store at any given time. Microsoft on the other hand reported that they SHIPPED their five millionth to retailers. On the other side of the coin, I have never seen a store without at least 5 or more Xbox Ones on DISPLAY, let alone what they have in the back. Microsoft seems to be continuing to ship consoles to retailers even if there is no immediate demand.

Forbes has a great graphic showing the trend in sales of each system since they were released. While again the graphic is by no means shows a definitive win for Sony, it should definitely be grabbing Microsoft’s attention. Both systems are starting to show signs of sales leveling off, but the Xbox seems to be slowing at a greater pace than the PS4.

Xbox risks falling well behind Playstation in installed user base unless they do something soon. Even with the launch of Titanfall in March, Forbes is reporting that PS4 still outsold the Xbox One in the month. It will definitely be interesting to see how Microsoft responds to the latest sales numbers. Feel free to use the comments to give your opinion on what Microsoft should do to improve their sales.

Tabletop Day is in the books and it was a ton of fun to hang out with everyone and play some awesome games! Check out our recap of the day!

In addition, we give our review of Captain America: Winter Soldier. *CAUTION* *SPOILERS INCLUDED!* *CAUTION!* We do reveal some plot points as we discuss so if you have not seen Winter Soldier yet, you may want to pass on this episode until you do!

We also touch on some of the DC relaunches that are forthcoming, especially in the Bat Family, and we continue to promote our home town con, Cherry Capital Comic Con.

Have you ever loved a character, musician, actor/actress, or even an idea so much that the mere thought of interacting with that person or thing in real life is almost overwhelming? Emma Stone does, that’s for sure. Emma is possibly the biggest Spice Girls fan in the world, and her recent press tour for The Amazing Spider-man 2 has created a bunch of spectacular moments for her in that regard. Check out the latest one that took place on The Graham Norton Show.

My adventure through Final Fantasy I has finally been completed. I loved the challenge that the game presented, especially the final dungeon. As my last post mentioned, I needed to really take some time to grind up more levels before I really went to attempt the dungeon in earnest. The difficulty was increased by the fact that it was a seven floor dungeon and that the final five floors had a boss fight at the end of each of them.

Basement 1 through 4 had a theme based on one of the four Fiends I had faced earlier in the game when I lit the four orbs. Having a four boss fights before the final battle took planning as my magic was severely limited and I wasn’t sure how tough it would be. Unfortunately, the planning wasn’t really all that needed. The final battle was fairly easy, a defense spell to reduce the chance of instant death, a nuke and about 3 rounds of my Ninja and Knight pounding the boss and it was over. Overall, I liked the game and had fun taking this first step in the journey.

Using my excitement from finishing the first game, I jumped with both feet into Final Fantasy II. I immediately noticed the huge steps forward in storytelling from the first game. There was almost as much dialog in the first five minutes of FFII than there was in the whole of FFI. What I didn’t notice until I was little ways into the game was the MASSIVE change in the leveling system. After about half an hour of fighting monsters, I realized that I wasn’t getting any experience points and my characters didn’t seem to be growing very much. The change was so severe that I had to look up why I wasn’t gaining anything.

Come to find out, that the “leveling” in FFII was based on how you used the characters and what happened to them. Want to gain HP? You will need to get hit….a lot. You won’t gain those max HP until your character drops below 50% of their current maximum. Same goes for MP. The tricky part comes when you are trying to get your magic user the way you need them. This is because magic costs so little to cost until it gains levels (yes, magic and weapons need to level up as well) making gaining MP difficult. Also, while attacking raises attack power, it also reduces intellect which makes the spells less powerful.

I can tell that this is going to be a big challenge to get my characters to a point that I will be able to meet the challenges that this game will present going forward….but I can’t wait!

PAX East is going on this weekend and one of its first big announcements has made its way to the world! Firaxis has announced the newest installment of the Sid Meier’s Civilization series…Beyond Earth.

Modern society on Earth has collapsed and each player will take part in an expedition to find a new home beyond Earth for humanity. Every decision will have ramifications for the future of humanity, from the make up of your crew to your choice of the mission sponsor. Some of the new features can be found after the trailer below.

Seed the Adventure: Establish your cultural identity by choosing one of eight different expedition sponsors, each with its own leader and unique gameplay benefits. Assemble your spacecraft, cargo & colonists through a series of choices that directly seed the starting conditions when arriving at the new planet.

Colonize an Alien World: Explore the dangers and benefits of a new planet filled with dangerous terrain, mystical resources, and hostile life forms unlike those of Earth. Build outposts, unearth ancient alien relics, tame new forms of life, develop flourishing cities and establish trade routes to create prosperity for your people.

Technology Web: To reflect progress forward into an uncertain future, technology advancement occurs through a series of nonlinear choices that affect the development of mankind. The technology web is organized around three broad themes, each with a distinct victory condition.

Quest System: Quests are injected with fiction about the planet, and help to guide you through a series of side-missions that will aid in resource collection, unit upgrades, and advancement through the game.
Orbital Layer: Build and deploy advanced military, economic and scientific units that provide strategic offensive, defensive and support capabilities from orbit.

Unit Customization: Unlock different upgrades through the tech web and customize your units to reflect your play style.

Multiplayer: Up to 8 players can compete for dominance of a new alien world.

Mod support: Robust mod support allows you to customize and extend your game experience.

I find it exciting that the Civilization franchise is branching out into a new format. As much as I love the series, it has become a bit stale to just get a retooled terrestrial based turn based strategy game. This will definitely be on my must play list!

It has been an exciting day for Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway. Kate Mulgrew, who played Captain Janeway for 7 seasons, was having her sanity questioned for most of the day. A report had come out that Mulgrew had narrated a documentary claiming that the Sun revolves around the Earth. This theory, called geocentrism, was debunked somewhere around 500 years ago by Galileo. The documentary, called The Principle, was backed in part by Robert Sungenis. Sungenis is a known anti-Semite and runs a blog call Galileo was Wrong and has previously claimed that no one can prove 6 million Jews dies in the Holocaust and that Jews were colluding with Satan to take over the world.

For all of you Capt. Janeway fans, worry not, it appears that Sungenis and his team may have done a masterful job of hiding the true message of the documentary. Mulgrew released a statement today regarding her involvement with the project:

“I understand there has been some controversy about my participation in a documentary called THE PRINCIPLE. Let me assure everyone that I completely agree with the eminent physicist Lawrence Krauss, who was himself misrepresented in the film, and who has written a succinct rebuttal in SLATE. I am not a geocentrist, nor am I in any way a proponent of geocentrism. More importantly, I do not subscribe to anything Robert Sungenis has written regarding science and history and, had I known of his involvement, would most certainly have avoided this documentary. I was a voice for hire, and a misinformed one, at that. I apologize for any confusion that my voice on this trailer may have caused. Kate Mulgrew”

In addition to Mulgrew’s statement, physicist Lawrence Krauss also commented. Those comments can be found here.

Samuel L. Jackson has let the cat out of the bag. Vulture ran into the Marvel Cinematic Universe star at the Broadway premiere of his wife’s play A Raisin in the Sun. After asking if Jackson would be reprising his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury Jackson replied, “I did! Last week! I just shot the end-of-the-season show.” When pressed for more details Jackson clammed up telling Vulture, “You’re trying to get me fired and killed! I don’t talk about Marvel’s business. None of us do.”

After the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, there are more questions than answers when it comes to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but it looks like there is definitely much to look forward as the first season comes to a close.

Comment below with what you think is gonna happen, but please keep Winter Soldier spoilers to a minimum.

We’re really cookin’ now! We take on the controversy that was the finale of How I met Your Mother. Pat seems to have taken it a bit harder than Corey. We also hit on lots of small topics, from Oculus being bought by Facebook to our appearance on a local radio station!

We also give our takes on some of the most underrated games, movies, TV and others stuff. After you hear our opinions, we would LOVE to hear yours as well!